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- Thread starter MD Buckeye
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OHSportsFan
Fan of Ohio Sports in Indy
Crucial slot position is open for competition. Him and Gill have a great chance to backfill Hill’s PT. I’ll be happy if they come close to his production too, Bucks need that on 3rd downs.
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Ohio State Coaches Still Have Plans for Demario McCall
Demario McCall has provided glimpses.
Ninety yards of total offense and a pair of scores in his first collegiate game back in 2016.
Eighty-five yards rushing in his third career game.
He didn’t play a lot as a true freshman, but when he was on the field, he was effective. McCall rushed for 73 yards against Nebraska, then posted 101 all-purpose yards the following week at Maryland.
As a sophomore, he rushed for 103 yards in a game at Rutgers before missing the rest of the season due to injury and redshirting. As Urban Meyer said at the time, McCall wasn’t even 100% against the Scarlet Knights.
With 2017 being lost to injury, the expectations were ramped up in 2018, but McCall found himself in a difficult depth chart situation with JK Dobbins and Mike Weber at running back and Parris Campbell and KJ Hill at H-back.
Offensive coordinators Ryan Day and Kevin Wilson still wanted to find a spot for McCall in 2018, which they finally did in the Michigan game, getting him on a wheel route against future first-round middle linebacker Devin Bush. McCall left Bush in the shrubs, picking up a big gain on the completion and providing a blueprint for usage in 2019.
“He can be a matchup nightmare,” running backs coach Tony Alford said one year ago. “You put him in the backfield and shift him out into some empty sets and make linebackers go out there and cover him. That’s a matchup problem.”
There is no doubt he is a matchup problem. Everyone saw him dust one of the nation’s fastest linebackers in 2018, but it didn’t happen last year.
McCall ran the ball 18 times and caught just four passes in 2019. He didn’t even touch the ball for the Buckeyes in any of their final four games, on offense or special teams.
The offensive brain trust at Ohio State isn’t ready to give up on their plans for McCall, it’s just been difficult to implement.
“We’ve wanted to expand a package for Demario that never has really taken off. We’ve wanted to,” offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said this past week.
There was a role designed for McCall, but he was again a victim of the depth chart.
“It didn’t quite play out like [they wanted],” Day said last week. “And I think a lot had to do with how well JK was playing. It was hard to take JK off the field last year. And same thing with KJ. We got into a rhythm a little bit. KJ was in the slot and then we were getting some 12 personnel. So we never got quite that far with Demario. But we’re going to — this spring he’s going to play some running back. He’s going to line up at slot and do both of those things.”
With the injury to Master Teague this spring, McCall is expected to get more running back reps through camp than he would have originally. This should give the Buckeyes an opportunity to work on some of those mismatches that McCall provides, as well as letting the defensive staff see which of their players handles guys like him the best.
McCall opened the spring in the slot, but with sophomore receiver Garrett Wilson inside as well, along with freshmen Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Mookie Cooper, the need for another body at H may be waning.
But then considering McCall an H-back may not be the proper thinking. He is a running back who can present some problems in the slot. His home, however, will always be the backfield.
“Demario can still do that,” Day said after the first spring practice of camp. “We’re just starting him out at slot and we can always bring him back. He has that skill set. It’s something that we’ve always tried to find that role for him where he can be a running back and also be a matchup problem for teams like that.”
Entire article: https://theozone.net/2020/03/ohio-state-football-coaches-plans-demario-mccall-buckeyes/
Demario McCall has provided glimpses.
Ninety yards of total offense and a pair of scores in his first collegiate game back in 2016.
Eighty-five yards rushing in his third career game.
He didn’t play a lot as a true freshman, but when he was on the field, he was effective. McCall rushed for 73 yards against Nebraska, then posted 101 all-purpose yards the following week at Maryland.
As a sophomore, he rushed for 103 yards in a game at Rutgers before missing the rest of the season due to injury and redshirting. As Urban Meyer said at the time, McCall wasn’t even 100% against the Scarlet Knights.
With 2017 being lost to injury, the expectations were ramped up in 2018, but McCall found himself in a difficult depth chart situation with JK Dobbins and Mike Weber at running back and Parris Campbell and KJ Hill at H-back.
Offensive coordinators Ryan Day and Kevin Wilson still wanted to find a spot for McCall in 2018, which they finally did in the Michigan game, getting him on a wheel route against future first-round middle linebacker Devin Bush. McCall left Bush in the shrubs, picking up a big gain on the completion and providing a blueprint for usage in 2019.
“He can be a matchup nightmare,” running backs coach Tony Alford said one year ago. “You put him in the backfield and shift him out into some empty sets and make linebackers go out there and cover him. That’s a matchup problem.”
There is no doubt he is a matchup problem. Everyone saw him dust one of the nation’s fastest linebackers in 2018, but it didn’t happen last year.
McCall ran the ball 18 times and caught just four passes in 2019. He didn’t even touch the ball for the Buckeyes in any of their final four games, on offense or special teams.
The offensive brain trust at Ohio State isn’t ready to give up on their plans for McCall, it’s just been difficult to implement.
“We’ve wanted to expand a package for Demario that never has really taken off. We’ve wanted to,” offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said this past week.
There was a role designed for McCall, but he was again a victim of the depth chart.
“It didn’t quite play out like [they wanted],” Day said last week. “And I think a lot had to do with how well JK was playing. It was hard to take JK off the field last year. And same thing with KJ. We got into a rhythm a little bit. KJ was in the slot and then we were getting some 12 personnel. So we never got quite that far with Demario. But we’re going to — this spring he’s going to play some running back. He’s going to line up at slot and do both of those things.”
With the injury to Master Teague this spring, McCall is expected to get more running back reps through camp than he would have originally. This should give the Buckeyes an opportunity to work on some of those mismatches that McCall provides, as well as letting the defensive staff see which of their players handles guys like him the best.
McCall opened the spring in the slot, but with sophomore receiver Garrett Wilson inside as well, along with freshmen Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Mookie Cooper, the need for another body at H may be waning.
But then considering McCall an H-back may not be the proper thinking. He is a running back who can present some problems in the slot. His home, however, will always be the backfield.
“Demario can still do that,” Day said after the first spring practice of camp. “We’re just starting him out at slot and we can always bring him back. He has that skill set. It’s something that we’ve always tried to find that role for him where he can be a running back and also be a matchup problem for teams like that.”
Entire article: https://theozone.net/2020/03/ohio-state-football-coaches-plans-demario-mccall-buckeyes/
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Now, as he prepares for his fifth and final season at Ohio State, he’s an afterthought, which nobody could have foreseen. His name rarely comes up in conversations about how the Buckeyes’ offense will operate in 2020 even though they’re looking to replace starters at both running back and H-back.
And perhaps most incredibly, we still don’t even know what position he’ll play.
.
.
.
Only one thing’s a certainty. This year will be the last chance McCall gets to make a name for himself on the field as a Buckeye. Quite literally, it's now or never.
Welcome to Demario’s Last Dance.
Just sayin': When was the last time a Buckeye ran a kick back for a TD? I really hope he can make a difference as a PR/KR special teams player.
I found this: The last time Ohio State returned a traditional punt for a touchdown was also in November…of 2014.
https://theozone.net/2019/08/buckeyes-punt-returner/
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
DEMARIO MCCALL
The Buckeyes lost a lot of firepower with the departures of K.J. Hill, Binjimen Victor, Austin Mack and J.K. Dobbins, and they're going to need all they can get from the remaining perimeter talent.
Demario McCall came to Ohio State with sky-high expectations. Rated the No. 44 recruit in the class of 2016 and the No. 2 all-purpose back overall, McCall was supposed to be a consistent two-punch threat for the Buckeyes.
While he's flashed, McCall hasn't had the breakout year many have waited for — but he has the opportunity to capitalize this fall.
Parris Campbell had a similar story. While he made more of a contribution in his junior season (584 receiving yards), Campbell absolutely caught fire in his final season, catching 90 passes (a school record) and posting just the fifth 1,000-yard receiving season in program history.
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BigthickThaddeus_gibson09
Your favorite forgotten pass rusher
well Curt Samuel was 200 pounds. This guys built more like 160 pound dontre wilson
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Can Demario McCall find consistent role in final season?
There have been numerous opportunities for Demario McCall to show what he can do with his top-end speed and agility, but he’s just not been able to get over the hump for Ohio State to become a regular part of the rotation — even on special teams.
Injuries have certainly held him back, and the remarkable depth has made winning any competition for playing time a challenge even when he’s healthy. It hasn’t helped that he’s had ball-security issues and put a couple key kicks on the ground, which has made it hard for him to earn the trust of the coaching staff. His career has been filled with what-if conversations about the impact he could have, but the clock has almost completely run out on him. This is the last chance, and McCall will have to leave no doubt whatsoever on the practice field that he deserves another shot if he’s going to become the kind of factor that was expected when he arrived.
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
SKULL SESSION: DEMARIO MCCALL WANTS TO BE BUCKEYES' ALVIN KAMARA, NEBRASKA'S AD CALLS OHIO STATE MATCHUP "DAUNTING," AND URBAN MEYER LAMENTS DESHAUN WATSON RECRUITING MISS
BUCKEYE ALVIN KAMARA. We're entering year five of the Demario McCall experiment in Columbus and the Buckeyes once again, openly admitted they have no idea what to do with him in the offense.
Demario, meanwhile, has his own ideas in the works.
This seemed like the world's most obvious direction for the offense to go when Demario clowning the Michigan secondary with wheel routes out of the backfield back in 2018, but we never saw that ever again, so my hopes ain't too high.
I expect we'll get another season with him in the receivers room full time and then just weirdly getting fourth-quarter I-formation carries against Rutgers. But hey, as long as the Bucks go 11-0!
Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/skul...nebraskas-athletic-director-calls-the-matchup
BUCKEYE ALVIN KAMARA. We're entering year five of the Demario McCall experiment in Columbus and the Buckeyes once again, openly admitted they have no idea what to do with him in the offense.
Demario, meanwhile, has his own ideas in the works.
This seemed like the world's most obvious direction for the offense to go when Demario clowning the Michigan secondary with wheel routes out of the backfield back in 2018, but we never saw that ever again, so my hopes ain't too high.
I expect we'll get another season with him in the receivers room full time and then just weirdly getting fourth-quarter I-formation carries against Rutgers. But hey, as long as the Bucks go 11-0!
Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/skul...nebraskas-athletic-director-calls-the-matchup
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